Monthly Archives: November 2016

October 16, 2016 was the happiest day of my life. I got married again…it was the second time, but it felt like the first time…and every day since then has been great. We’re poor, we’re currently living in my mother’s basement….but you know what? We have each other, and that’s all that matters.

Our entire relationship has been a struggle to be able to -get- married. Four years in and out of a court room and my Sailor was FINALLY free. We decided to get married this year, about 4 months after his divorce was finalized. We weren’t going to wait any longer, and one of the months we picked was October.

I’d always wanted a Halloween wedding, but thanks to leap year, Halloween this year fell on a Monday. So we decided to look at my birth control, and see when I wouldn’t be on my period (no I’m totally serious) and we picked Oct. 16th, which also happens to be my cousin’s anniversary.

Our wedding theme started off as Steampunk….but sort of evolved into a Book theme with Steampunk and recycle/upcycled everything.

We were very short on cash, as this was all done in a rush. We had very little in the way of savings, but we both agreed we were NOT going to wait until next year. I had gotten a $500 check from my last job due to some time unpaid law suit, so that was the start of the budget.

We also had some very generous loved ones help pitch in….with out it we couldn’t have done it….well we could have, but it would have been much less awesome.

Part One is going to focus on the NON crafted items…items we had to buy because well…we couldn’t make them ourselves…

The Dress/Hair/Shoes/Makeup

Can we just talk about my amazing dress? I love this dress so damn much. I paid…are you ready for this…? 60 dollars with shipping. Custom made to the measurements I provided. I bought this on Amazon from a seller called Romance Wang (yes I giggled for like 20min at the name, I’m super mature like that.) I read over all the reviews from several sellers that seemed the least shady, took a deep breath and ordered from the one with the most customer pictures…and cried tears of joy when I got it…of course I listened and sized it 2 inches up, and it shocklingly came 2 inches too big…good thing my mother in law is a professional seamstress, she ended up taking it in as I’d also lost weight since I ordered it in April.

I went barefoot most of the time, but the shoes I ended up paying 2 dollars for at an end of year sale. They were flesh colored jelly sandals. Nothing all that exciting. I wore them outside for the pictures and that was about it.

I did my hair and makeup/nails myself of course. The hairband I’m wearing was one dollar. The other bobbles in my hair were from my collection and painted, but all together the clips in the back cost me around 3.00. My earrings were 2.

The only new makeup I purchased was a LipTint/Stain from Amazon, which ended up costing me 3 dollars after I used a giftcard from the Job Spotter app. (Seriously, awesome app.)

The Rings

We wanted something unique, one of a kind…and NOT gold or diamonds. We seriously looked everywhere….online (which was going to be our last resort because sizing issues), local shops, festivals…etc…etc…no luck. About a month before the wedding, we drove to the east side of Cleveland hoping maybe the place we bought our matching pendants from would have -something-. They didn’t. We went over to a shop across the street and FOUND THESE. The stone is a cubic zirconium and the rings are stainless. And we love them. And they cost us about 26 dollars after tax.

His Outfit

He had a costume change…but his Navy dress blues didn’t cost us anything…so we’ll focus on this. Shoes were from the Navy. Pants he already had. Shirt = Walmart 9 dollars. Vest was hand made by his mother, which cost us nothing. Belt was also from the Navy, and socks and underwear he already owned. I had gifted him his cufflinks the first X-Mas we were together.

Venue

FREE. This mother works for the Massachusetts Autobahn Society, and we got the Worcester site free. It wasn’t the fanciest of places, but everyone really seemed to enjoy it. We didn’t have to pay for table or chair rentals either.

The table covers are from his mother’s fabric stock, and were returned there.

We also had a beaver, which I bitched about at first (taxidermy? At my wedding?) but decided to roll with…fancy hat and all. We ended up leaving the hat (forgetting it) and I guess the owners got a kick out of it the next day at their meeting.

Photography

FREE. I had planned to just have pictures taken next year doing a trash the dress sort of photo shoot, but my cousins thought better, and acted as our photographers…and did AMAZING. I can’t thank them enough.

Cake

We had an apple spiced cake with cream cheese frosting and an apple butter filling. Seriously. YUM. The cake was gifted to us by someone very special who has asked for personal and family reasons to remain annon.

Here was the cake-spectation I found online.

Here was our cake reality…though the frosting wasn’t as skimpy as above. To create the distressed look, our cake-spert used apple jelly smeared on the white frosting.